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Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

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Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#51

Post by TaylorGood »

xster wrote: post #30
erichurkman wrote: post #4

This matches my experience trying to use Waze, multiple times, over multiple years. Sometimes the "creative" routes would seem to save time, other times exiting the freeway to take a surface street would have me sitting at the offramp for 10 minutes... possibly with all of the other Waze users who were routed that way. There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential…

The whole dynamic rerouting thing is a prisoner's dilemma though. And the Bay Area is probably the worst are to avoid the metaphorical snitches.

Waze once took me through the roughest parts of DTLA, with dozens of homeless people in the street. Now my protocol is to immediately check the alternate routes to see 1) how much faster is the first choice and 2) Is it a zig zag off/on freeway or random streets just to save a few minutes. Common sense from there for enjoyable driving.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#52

Post by bahmboo »

tzs wrote: post #24

I'd like to see a review of how the various navigation apps do in situations with unusually heavy, unusually widespread traffic, such as when people were trying to go home after the 2017 total eclipse in the US. I was using Waze when leaving Madras, Oregon, after the eclipse heading to the Puget Sound area of Washington. It suggested a route that would bypass a couple miles of slow traffic, but the road it sent me do…

Nice anecdote - was there too. Don't think we can hold nav apps accountable in these extreme circumstances. Just not enough data for them to extrapolate. I studied my route while driving in from Washington and thought about pinch points on the way back and possible mitigations. Used gmaps real time traffic and did pretty well coming back north - following gmaps routing would have been bad. Oh, and then WSDOT closed I-90 for blasting. Glad I missed that.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#53

Post by athenot »

2 years ago I went on the (rocky & dirt) forest "roads" in the North Georgia mountains with my Jeep, and at the top of the dirt trail, I encountered a couple of hikers who drove their rental Nissan Versa into a mud pit. They had blindly followed their GPS and were completely stuck. I was too busy helping them get out of their predicament to notice exactly what they were using but I know that it wasn't Apple Maps (they were on Android).

Actually, Apple Maps will refuse to route me though any of the forest service "roads" and shys away from unpaved ones (though I've found exceptions). Only if I set a intermediate destination in the middle of the forest will it route me through those trails.

Back in city/suburbs, I've found the same as the author, in that Apple pads the time with a few extra minutes. I appreciate that realism because it only takes a few poorly timed traffic lights to add a few minutes to the estimate.

I suspect there is some logic around building padding around lights at large intersections because I noticed that when the destination is right after a major intersection, that padding remains until I clear that intersection—and that doesn't seem to happen when the destination is much further after a big intersection.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#55

Post by chrisweekly »

foobarian wrote: post #27
erichurkman wrote: post #4

This matches my experience trying to use Waze, multiple times, over multiple years. Sometimes the "creative" routes would seem to save time, other times exiting the freeway to take a surface street would have me sitting at the offramp for 10 minutes... possibly with all of the other Waze users who were routed that way. There's also a familiarity level of safety taking known routes. Sure, cutting down some residential…

I wish Waze (or others) had a "lookback report" after arriving at the destination, where they picked all users near me at the origin, filtered out those that ended up near me at the end, and grouped by different routes taken. It would take a certain user base size to get this to work. But it would be awesome to see an apples-to-apples A/B comparison of routes, and once and for all answer the question "was I a fool to…

> "Another feature wish for Waze: voice-activated incident reporting. It's hard to tag accidents/hazards/speed traps while driving by hand, not to mention dangerous and illegal."

Yeah, I'm often struck by the irony of the "typing disabled unless you confirm you're a passenger" prompt, in light of the (prompt-less) 5(?) tap workflow to report a road hazard, while driving.

And it truly sucks at telling you which way to turn coming out of a parking lot.

OTOH it gets my eta ~right.

And the ~recent "enable use of bluetooth to keep your position updated in gps-blocking tunnels" was clever and useful.

But for me those are all relatively minor considerations. Waze is my constant companion behind the wheel, for one reason: there is (to my knowledge) simply no competition for its "crowd-sourced radar detector+" hazard and speed-trap reporting.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#56

Post by chisleu »

Forget the trip times. Apple maps routinely failed to work correctly, often sending me in circles and telling me to take streets that didn't exist (walking paths, etc).

Waze has only one thing going for it, and that is the ability to see speed traps. Often it requires keeping an eye on it ahead of your current position as the cops move around now that Waze has become popular.

However, my car doesn't like to use Waze instead of Google Maps. If I hit the "navi" button while in Android Auto mode, it will always bring me to google maps even if I'm currently navigating in Waze. That caused me to stop using Waze entirely, but it is not the fault of Waze themselves, but Mercedes poor technology.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#57

Post by sorahn »

chisleu wrote: post #56

Forget the trip times. Apple maps routinely failed to work correctly, often sending me in circles and telling me to take streets that didn't exist (walking paths, etc). Waze has only one thing going for it, and that is the ability to see speed traps. Often it requires keeping an eye on it ahead of your current position as the cops move around now that Waze has become popular. However, my car doesn't like to use Waze…

I have a similar issue with my head unit. It will stop whatever music I'm currently listening to and start pandora. It's obnoxious enough that I just don't have pandora installed on my phone anymore.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#58

Post by microtherion »

jannyfer wrote: post #34
myrandomcomment wrote: post #3

So I switched to CarPlay so I am forced to use Apple maps. It’s not that bad. I think the turn by turn is better then Google was. The only issues I cannot figure out is when you have to paths showing on the screen (dashboard screen) and you want to pick the other one (not default). There seems to be no way to do that. You just have to know to make that alternate turn then it picks it up.

Where do you live? I live in Canada and I find that Apple Maps is way too late to tell me when to turn. I'm driving along at 90km/h and it tells me to turn two seconds before I pass the rural intersection, which isn't enough warning for me to slow down safely. Hearing someone say that turn-by-turn works well makes me wonder if there is something fun going on with Apple testing in miles vs. me using kilometers.

That's funny, because I usually use Apple Maps, and when I use Google Maps, I get irritated because I get the turn instructions much too soon and often turn into one cross street too early.

So maybe the problem is less that either one's timing is wrong per se, but that they are quite different, and drivers have difficulties adjusting their expectations.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#59

Post by ctrlrsf »

Waze always has the latest accident and traffic reports. There are three main routes to my job. I always open it up in the morning and check travel times for each one (just press Routes button instead of Go). I have my preferred route, which is always fastest and shortest, but if Waze ever suggests one of the other two, I know I should listen. When I look into it, it’s usually some major accident or something affecting a lane of travel. The few times I ignored it I deeply regretted it. Makes the difference between a 60 minute commute vs a 90 min commute on a bad day.

Re: Apple Maps vs. Google Maps vs. Waze

#60

Post by valiant-comma »

koolba wrote: post #49
foobarian wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Waze (or others) had a "lookback report" after arriving at the destination, where they picked all users near me at the origin, filtered out those that ended up near me at the end, and grouped by different routes taken. It would take a certain user base size to get this to work. But it would be awesome to see an apples-to-apples A/B comparison of routes, and once and for all answer the question "was I a fool to…

I’m surprised they haven’t added an always on microphone feature to the app yet. Some like, “Hey Waze- Pothole!”. I doubt the majority user base would care about Google listening to your every word. I don’t use it myself and get downright scared when a driver starts flicking the app to report a pot hole. The privacy aspect might be worth it vs dying in a car crash.

There is an “OK, Waze” feature[0], that does essentially this, although I haven’t used it myself.

[0] https://support.google.com/waze/answer/6268717?hl=en

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